Corretja, the 14th seed, was made to work for his place in the final 16 and grand slam history, needing five hours and 30 minutes spread over two days to pound out a 6-1 5-7 6-7 7-5 9-7 marathon win over the feisty Gumy.

The time narrowly beat the 5:26 it took Sweden's Stefan Edberg to beat Michael Chang in the 1992 US Open semi-finals and eclipses by almost an hour the 4:42 it took for Sweden's Mats Wilander to beat another Argentine, Guillermo Vilas, in the 1982 French final.

It also easily surpasses the 4:16 Jimmy Connors required to defeat John McEnroe in the memorable 1982 Wimbledon final.

None of the matches, however, comes close to the 6:22 needed to decide a 1982 Davis Cup semi-final between Wilander and McEnroe in what was longest-recorded match ever played.

Gumy serves up understatement

"That's a pretty long match," understated Gumy, who also went 4:33 in a five-setter against Italian Gianluca Pozzi in the second round.

"I guess it didn't seem that long because I played it in two days."

The marathon third-round match started on Saturday but was halted after nearly four hours because of rain and fading light with Gumy leading 2-1 but Corretja up 5-4 in the fourth set.

After dropping that set, Corretja, a winner in Dubai and a finalist in Hamburg, looked to take control of the match, jumping in front 5-1 in the fifth.

But Gumy refused to buckle, fighting back to even the set at 5-5. "Once he got to 5-4 I just tried to relax myself," said Corretja.

"I had had about three match points and I was a little bit nervous because I wanted to finish the match.